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The Great Juvenile Mysteries

MrRING

Android Futureman
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
6,053
Anybody else have fond memories of the great mysteries for kids? My favorite was The Three Investigators, which was associated with Alfred Hitchcock (their mentor through their classic adventures). It was appealing to me that ol' Al would help some junior sleuths solve the Mystery of the Green Ghost - & others!

Some great sites for the Three Investigators:

http://www.3investigators.homestead.com/files/t3ihome.htm

http://www.threeinvestigatorsbooks.com/

Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys were popular at the time, but I know them more from the tv show.

http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/

http://hardyboys.bobfinnan.com/

The tv show fansite:

http://www.geocities.com/hardyboysnancydrew/
 
Dang, Mr. R.I.N.G., really trawling the depths of my childhood here! Flasback alert. I was sooo into The Three Investigators at one time. And like now, say WRT FT, I was obsessive about not missing an *issue*. I wonder how many years it's been since I read one or even thought about the series? Glancing at the title list from the website I must've stopped reading (got too old? bored?) somewhere in the mid-twenties. (Not MY mid-twenties. :lol: )

Gawd, the junkyard where their headquarters was, secret entrances, a decidedly 'geeky' group of heroic boys, a number of the mysteries had a fortean quality to them, but there was some suspense, some action...I even remember a little bit of specific plots. I really need to go to the public library and see if they have any to borrow. (Is it considered creepy for an adult male without kid in tow to browse the juvenille section?)
 
err.. ive still got most of the books somewhere (ta mr r for reminding me about the t3i :D )
 
I think I probably do too (stashed with a gazillion other volumes in my mum's loft).

I used to love the Three Investigators: I bought up to about number 20 (Monster Mountain?), read a few more - however, according to this page, there are 43 titles!

And that's possibly resolved something for me, too - I've been wondering for ages why one of our default user titles, Great Old One, rang a bell - wasn't one of the things they investigated called just that? Was it in the Moaning Cave?
lopaka said:
I really need to go to the public library and see if they have any to borrow. (Is it considered creepy for an adult male without kid in tow to browse the juvenille section?)
So long as you're looking at the books, no :D. I frequently get books for my own kids without them present.
 
Wow there is a blast from the past! The Stuttering Parrot", "The Screaming Clock". Looks like I'm going to have to go and have a look round my library as well!

I also enjoyed the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. Ah that Old Jalopy eh? :lol: (never did find out what an "Old Jalopy" was..)
 
An old jalopy is an elderly car, Min.

Who else heard the BBC continuity announcer telling us that the next programme would be the "Hardy Drew and Nancy Boys mysteries" :D?
 
I though it was a specific kind of car though. No? I used to imagine something between a Volkswagon Beetle and a small pick up truck. :laughing:
 
As far as I know it's pretty generic for any old mongrelly looking motor. I could be wrong though (and may even sometimes admit it ;)).
 
I used to read swallows and amazons, the secret seven and the famous five (one of them's a dog!)
 
Oooo I was just tiying up some old books and found the following (there are probably more around somewhere):

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators:

4 The Mystery of the Green Ghost
5. The Mystery of the Vanishing treasure
6. The Secret of Skeleton Island
7. The Mystery of the Fiery Eye
8. The Mystery of the Silver Spider
10. The Mystery of the Moaning Cave
11. The Mystery of the Talking Skull
12. The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow
13. The Secret of the Crooked Cat
14. The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon
15. The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints
17.The Mystery of the Singing Serpent
18. The Mystery of the Shrinking House
19. The Secret of Phantom Lake
20. The Mystery of Monster Mountain
25. The Mystery of the Dancing Devil

The Hardy Boys:

The Haunted Fort
The Mark on the Door
The Mystery of the Whale Tattoo
The Mystery of Cabin Island
The Secret of Pirates' Hill

Nancy Drew

16. The Clue of the Dancing Puppet

I'd forgotten how Fortean they were (in a slightly upmarket Scooby Doo way) - i does seem like a lot of us got an early taste for strangeness (and its investigation through these books).
 
Emperor said:
I'd forgotten how Fortean they were (in a slightly upmarket Scooby Doo way) - i does seem like a lot of us got an early taste for strangeness (and its investigation through these books).
I've got one of the Hitchcock ones, and it's about the unusual effects of infrasound!
 
I had a lot of Hardy Boys books, and watched the 70s/80s TV series as well. (I was young, I didn't know any better.)

Some of the books were kind of Fortean, like the one about the hidden treasure and the ghost and all the paintings...

I also had one of the Alfred Hitchcock presents The Three Investigators which was kind of interesting (although their hidden clubhouse was a little over the top). It was all about Eastern European monarchs living in exile and plots to kill them or restore them or something...
 
I too remember these books - I was an avid fan in my childhood of the 3 investigators.
Was one of the characters called Jupiter Jones?
I also remeber the Hardy boys ones.
Another favourite book as a child was the Readers Digest book of strange stories & amazing facts (or some similar title) which probably infuenced & laid the foundation for my fortean interests in later life with such stories as 'the faces on the floor '
Anyone else remember this book?
 
davidYowie said:
Another favourite book as a child was the Readers Digest book of strange stories & amazing facts (or some similar title) which probably infuenced & laid the foundation for my fortean interests in later life with such stories as 'the faces on the floor '
Anyone else remember this book?
Oh, yes :).

There's a little thread on it here. I recently bought a second hand copy from Amazon, as my orginal one went AWOL ages ago.
 
davidYowie said:
I too remember these books - I was an avid fan in my childhood of the 3 investigators.
Was one of the characters called Jupiter Jones?

yep his full name was, august jupiter jones(?) and he had the use of a "gold rolls-royce" (initially for a month) after winning a comp to calculate how many sweets were in a jar.

jupe as he prefered to be known as, could do a good impression of hitchcock

their "enemy" was a kid called norris someone


davidYowie said:
Another favourite book as a child was the Readers Digest book of strange stories & amazing facts (or some similar title) which probably infuenced & laid the foundation for my fortean interests in later life with such stories as 'the faces on the floor '
Anyone else remember this book?

a small slim darkish green book with pictures/drawings on the front
 
melf said:
a small slim darkish green book with pictures/drawings on the front
Err - no. A socking great phone-book thickness thing with a black cover (though it does have pics on the front).

Unless Reader's Digest did a condensed version of one of their own books :).
 
Ah yes August Jupe Jones - I seem to remember a bust of Augustus in the junkyard & also the rolls royce.
Thanks for the memories...

Melf, the book was a very very large book so probly a different one.
The link from Stu is definitely the right one

Cheers guys...
 
I forgot to add that I still own the Readers Digest book, albeit in a very tattered, torn & threadbare state (not unlike myself!) & it is a favourite my children 30 years later!
 
ok if i can find it, ill scan/photo it for you :D
 
Thanks again, Mr.R.I.N.G., you're really aces! Came home from the library today with a copy of The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot and The Mystery of the Fiery Eye. (They had a few others, seemed safe to start with two.)

I also picked up another couple of titles from another series last read by me +/- 30 years ago...anyone else remember "The Trick" series or any other titles by Scott Corbett? Less 'investigative', IIRC, but an old lady named Mrs. Graymalkin :miaow: gives a boy a *chemistry set* that allows him to cast spells that end up getting him and his pals into various mischief. Corbett also had a number supernatural non-"Trick" books for young(ish) readers. I remember one, though did not see it today, called Here Lies the Body about ghosts and pirate treasure. Anyone?
 
You might can find some info on the books you are looking for here:

http://loganberrybooks.com/default.html

Anybody else remember Encyclopedia Brown? I remember that he encountered the "Skunk Ape" at one point....

EDIT to add what Loganberry had to say:
Lemonade Trick
Trick I'm trying to remember the name of a series about a boy (he was about 11 or 12 yrs old I believe) who owned a chemistry set/ magic set that led him on wild adventures. If I remember correctly, there was some kind older person with magical qualities who provided guidance along the way. I read these books back in the mid '70's. A little like Encyclopedia Brown, but with a twist of magic.


E19: Most likely the Trick series by Scott Corbett! The first one, I think, is The Lemonade Trick, where he gets the chemistry set from Mrs. Graymalkin. He also wrote a couple of pleasantly scary books (1st or 2nd grade) about a boy, a dog and Merlin - Dr. Merlin's Magic Shop and The Great Custard Pie Panic. I WISH they were in print!
These are the "trick" books by Scott Corbett. Mrs. Graymalkin gives Kerby and Fenton her son Felix's old chemistry set which seems to have a touch of magic and the boys have many adventures. There are at least ten
books in the series published from 1960 to 1977. The first one is The Lemonade Trick. The Mailbox Trick is my favorite.
More on the suggested series - Lemonade Trick, by Scott Corbett, illustrated by Paul Galdone, published Atlantic-Little 1960, 103 pages "Kerby delights to receive a magic chemistry set from Mrs. Graymalkin (who might be a witch?). Ordinarily he faces household chores and choir duties in the manner of any real boy we'd know; how he handles them after a few drops of her magic fluid, which makes him feel 'good', will also be believed because Mr. Corbett has built up so real a personality and situation for his very down-to-earth hero." (Horn Book Apr/60 p.128)
 
Wikipedia has an article on Encyclopedia Brown, but that's the only site other than the publisher for him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Brown
Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown is a fictional boy detective, the main character in a long series of children's books written by Donald J. Sobol since 1963.

Brown lives in the fictional Idaville, Florida, where his father is chief of police. In the books, Brown will either solve cases presented to him by his father, often cases his father has been unable to solve, or by having someone walk into his detective agency ("Brown Detective Agency 13 Rover Avenue Leroy Brown President NO case too small 25 cents per day plus expenses"). Brown is sometimes assisted in his investigations by his friend (and "muscle") Sally Kimball. Two of the most frequent "villains" are Bugs Meany (leader of a gang of kids called the "Tigers" with a strong dislike for Brown and Kimball), and Wilford Wiggins (a pre-teen con-artist who attempts a scam every week).

Books featuring this character are subdivided into a number of (possibly interlinked) short stories, each of which presents a mystery. The mystery is always intended to be solved by the reader, thanks to the placement of a logical or factual inconsistency somewhere within the text. Encyclopedia Brown invariably solves the case by exposing this inconsistency, but this part of the story is placed at the end of the book; the bulk of the story ends just at the moment when readers are invited to solve the case themselves, or flip to the section in the back with the answers.

The enduring popularity of the Encyclopedia Brown books stems, at least partially, from the author's refusal to talk down to his audience (which consists primarily of younger readers), as far as leaving clues and puzzle pieces in each short story. Adult readers who browse through an Encyclopedia Brown story often find that the mysteries are just as difficult for adults to solve.

Other similar book series are those of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Great Brain.

Anybody read any "Great Brain"?
 
While my web site and current 'expertise' is with historical crime fiction, I 'cut my teeth' on Hitchcock's Three Investigators. As a kid from South London, I could only admire the freedom given to those Californian boys, their contacts and headquarters. I mean - they even had their own 'phone (at a time when my family never had one).

The case of the Green Ghost was a corker kiddies book ...but, on adult reflection, is so close to Scooby Doo that one wonders how these bright young lads fell for it, hook line and sinker!
 
I'd completly forgotten about The Three Investigators until I stumbled on this thread... the one I remember best was the Stuttering Parrot. Pure class! Thanks for the memories!
 
The problem with the Encycolpedia Brown stories, and many of the author's stories for adults, is that they frequently require external knowledge of the world. And sometimes that knowledge is wrong.

There is the case which revolved around evidence of a ticking digital clock, which assumes that digital clocks don't tick. (Ones with LEDs might not, but the type commonly available at the time the story was written did.) Or one of his Five Minute Mysteries which required an intimate understanding of the New York phone exchange.

They're not actually that difficult, as long as you actually pay attention.
 
I had an unaccountable fondness for Biggles as a child. Although most people associate the character with WW1, he actually also enjoyed a lengthy career as an 'Air Detective' during peacetime.

You can find an excellent summary of each book here: http://www.biggles.info/

(Not the most politically correct books ever written, perhaps.)
 
"Biggles Takes It Rough", eh? Just as we suspected...
 
I'm disproportionately excited to have got hold of a 30s copy of Biggles Hits the Trail:

Whilst celebrating Ginger's award of his pilot's licence, an SOS on B.B.C. radio asks for Major James Bigglesworth to contact his Uncle, Professor Richard Bigglesworth. This is of course, Dickpa, previously seen in the story 'The Cruise of the Condor'. Visiting Dickpa at his house, they find him and his friend Lord Roger Maltenham, under attack from mysterious enemies. Both Dickpa and Maltenham have returned from the heart of Western China on the borders by Tibet and have a strange tale to tell. Maltenham agrees to finance an expedition back to the borders of Tibet in search of the so-called 'Mountain of Light'. Buying a Gannet amphibian and naming it the Explorer, Biggles, Algy, Ginger, Dickpa and 'Malty' fly to Tibet. On their first night, they are able to see a shining blue mountain, the effect being caused by the tremendous quantity of radium in the mountain. Attempts to approach the mountain are initially thwarted by a strange paralysing effect and giant man-eating centipedes. However, the rescue of a Scotsman called Angus McAllister gives our heroes vital information. A strange race of Chinamen called the Chungs has been holding McAllister captive. The radium in the mountain has given the Chungs weird powers, including the ability to make themselves invisible! McAllister was the Chief Engineer on a ship, captured and forced to work for the Chungs. The Chungs have the ability to use a bizarre blue ray that has a paralysing effect. However, there is an insulating fluid, which can be used to ward off its effects. The Chungs plan to invade the world from the Mountain of Light, which is their power base. The Chungs attack Biggles and the others by blue rays at their aircraft from a nearby plateau. Biggles and Ginger make a desperate journey to attack the Chungs and prevent this continuing. The Chungs then attack the aircraft in force and capture Dickpa, Malty and McAllister. Algy manages to escape and join Biggles and Ginger. Meanwhile Biggles has taken a hostage, a Chung called Prince Sing Hi and he is able to exchange the Prince for Dickpa, Malty and McAllister. An expedition to get some radium from the Mountain of Light sees Biggles falling into a network of tunnels, which honeycomb the Mountain. Biggles comes up with an idea to flood the gorge where the Chungs have their City and he is able to breach their dam resulting in a deluge of water. Back in England, the small amount of radium they recovered is found to be worth £250,000 and Malty gives Biggles the Explorer and agrees to finance his next trip.

http://www.biggles.info/Details/08/

Obviously I also have my eyes open for an old copy of Flies Again.
 
theyithian said:
I'm disproportionately excited to have got hold of a 30s copy of Biggles Hits the Trail:

Whilst celebrating Ginger's award of his pilot's licence, an SOS on B.B.C. radio asks for Major James Bigglesworth to contact his Uncle, Professor Richard Bigglesworth. This is of course, Dickpa, previously seen in the story 'The Cruise of the Condor'. Visiting Dickpa at his house, they find him and his friend Lord Roger Maltenham, under attack from mysterious enemies. Both Dickpa and Maltenham have returned from the heart of Western China on the borders by Tibet and have a strange tale to tell. Maltenham agrees to finance an expedition back to the borders of Tibet in search of the so-called 'Mountain of Light'. Buying a Gannet amphibian and naming it the Explorer, Biggles, Algy, Ginger, Dickpa and 'Malty' fly to Tibet. On their first night, they are able to see a shining blue mountain, the effect being caused by the tremendous quantity of radium in the mountain. Attempts to approach the mountain are initially thwarted by a strange paralysing effect and giant man-eating centipedes. However, the rescue of a Scotsman called Angus McAllister gives our heroes vital information. A strange race of Chinamen called the Chungs has been holding McAllister captive. The radium in the mountain has given the Chungs weird powers, including the ability to make themselves invisible! McAllister was the Chief Engineer on a ship, captured and forced to work for the Chungs. The Chungs have the ability to use a bizarre blue ray that has a paralysing effect. However, there is an insulating fluid, which can be used to ward off its effects. The Chungs plan to invade the world from the Mountain of Light, which is their power base. The Chungs attack Biggles and the others by blue rays at their aircraft from a nearby plateau. Biggles and Ginger make a desperate journey to attack the Chungs and prevent this continuing. The Chungs then attack the aircraft in force and capture Dickpa, Malty and McAllister. Algy manages to escape and join Biggles and Ginger. Meanwhile Biggles has taken a hostage, a Chung called Prince Sing Hi and he is able to exchange the Prince for Dickpa, Malty and McAllister. An expedition to get some radium from the Mountain of Light sees Biggles falling into a network of tunnels, which honeycomb the Mountain. Biggles comes up with an idea to flood the gorge where the Chungs have their City and he is able to breach their dam resulting in a deluge of water. Back in England, the small amount of radium they recovered is found to be worth £250,000 and Malty gives Biggles the Explorer and agrees to finance his next trip.

http://www.biggles.info/Details/08/

Obviously I also have my eyes open for an old copy of Flies Again.

I remember that one well! Those darn centipedes!
 
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